"Great Guy, Great Lunch, Great Book, Great Autograph!"

My long time aviation artist buddy, Mike Machat.

I met my aviation buddy, Mike Machat at the 94th Aero Squadron restaurant overlooking the Van Nuys airport. Every time I return to SoCal, I make an appointment to have lunch with Mike. He and I grew up making plastic models as kids and one of our major influences in our adult art career was Jack Leynnwood, who created model box top art for Revell and Aurora. So, even if we never had anything else to talk about having Jack in our lives is a topic we never tire of. 

Mike and I met on the board of the Society of Illustrators in Los Angeles and found aviation as a passion that we both shared. We spent many years painting for the U.S. Air Force Art Program and the American Society of Aviation Artists. We both worked at aerospace plants in LA and both had to split before the whole industry caved in on itself. The big difference between he and I is that he's a pilot and I am not, and he continued making a living as an aviation artist and I went the route of creating presentation art for the ad world.

This year, Mike published his third hard cover book entitled," The Art of Mike Machat" Painting Aviation Legends." In the book, he writes about the varied processes of creating historical art for the aviation industry working directly with the pilots that made so many contributions to flight. One year ago, he asked me to read a couple of pages to give him my opinion of the concept. I was flattered then that he wanted my perspective on the concept, and yesterday, was more flattered to receive my own autographed copy.

He signed it, "For Ben Bensen, Fellow Air Force Artist, Jack Leynnwood fan, and friend. With admiration, Mike Machat."

Thanks, Mike!

Copyright 2016/ Ben Bensen III

"I Can't Imagine How Jack Would Have Done It!"

One in a series of storyboard frames for the original Spiderman trailer!

This is a comment I made in a conversation with a fellow Art Center College of Design student.

Yeh Karen, Jack would have given me that smirk if I tried to tell him my problems with this piece. I remember how he would jokingly say create an obvious mistake that would be easy to correct so that the art director would have something to say which would validate the art director's job.

When I first did this piece it occurred to me, someone would have a problem with the kid since it was the focal point of a dubious concept. So, I did it in two pieces and the original "kid" was more in line with the atmosphere of an early urban morning. There were no contrasts.

The many folks from art directors to movie execs made me beef it up and add wind blown hair and shirt...

Three more times.

I started to wonder if doing it separately was a mistake. Maybe, if I would have drawn it all in one piece, they would have been more receptive to approve it. Doing it in pieces just seemed to spur them on, perhaps! Sometimes, you can out smart yourself by anticipating possible scenarios of disapproval.

I must say having the computer to cut and paste was a godsend regardless of how many times I had to change the kid and reassemble it into a composite piece of art. Looking closely at it,  I thought I did a pretty good job of selecting the kid and pasting him into position.

Today, they'd probably "google" a NewYork skyline and pose a buddy, if they couldn't find a pose that worked with the layout. They'd then, photograph the buddy and assemble it... if they needed to go to that extreme for a presentation.

And every time I see and relive this frame, I wonder to myself, " How would Jack have done it?"

Copyright 2013/ Ben Bensen III

Jack Leynnwood's "Pearl Diver"...

Just another Jack specialty!

Through my long time association with the Society of Illustrators/ Los Angeles ( SILA for the abbreviated version ), I occasionally receive inquiries about past members. I have been pretty successful tracking down illustrators no one can find, corroborate stories of members no one believes and follow up on paintings that need an owner. Maybe, it is the Sherlock Holmes in me that takes on such silly tasks. A couple of months ago, an Art Center grad had a piece of art that he felt needed a permanent home and went to SILA to find someone who would be a taker. He wasn't asking for any compensation. He just wanted to do what was right to the artwork.

I received an email from our intrepid administrator at SILA, Alyce Heath, that this artist had an illustration for many years and was looking for a good home for it. She apparently sent emails to all members old enough to remember the creator's name, Jack Leynnwood.

I don't know who else responded, but I did... almost immediately. Twenty-four hours later, I receive an email from an illustrator, Ken Croff, currently living in Idaho and, attached to his informative letter, was a marker comp of one of Jack Leynnwood's "Pearl Divers".

 I was blown away.

In the email, Ken wrote to me, "This piece was given to me by Jack after I had asked him for some sort of scrap to be able to study.  That's Jack for you.  I really hate to part with it but it is time to share.  Since it was a gift from him I can't make myself sell it.  I will keep you informed and again thank you for your response."

In my earlier email, I responded by sending Ken some articles in my blogs about the relationship I had at Art Center with Jack along with some of the photos I had of Jack's work at Northrup. Through a couple more of emails, I suggested he call Jack's wife, JoAnne and see if the family was interested in the comp. I suspect he had already spoken to other Art Center grads in his search to find the best home for the marker comp. He probably got in touch with aviation artist, Mike Machat. Mike was close friends with Jack up to his death in 1999 and has an excellent article about Jack at: http://theboxartden.com/Artists.html. Mike probably suggested contacting Jack's daughter, Laura Lee.


A few weeks into the holidays, Ken informed me that he was sending the comp back to the family. "I have received an email from Jack's daughter, Laura Lee, and she has told me she would like the comp.  Thanks for your help and I'm sorry I got your attention on this and then had to disappoint you, but didn't know I could contact the family.  Thanks again."

I replied,"I have no problem with Laura Lee's request. The comp is where it should be... with the family!"

Seeing this in-class marker comp up close, it is incredible to notice that it actually was rendered in marker and probably demoed it in class.  I've made my living rendering, at times quite realistically, with Ad and Design Markers, but my technique was totally different than what Jack was teaching at school. When you work in those markers on opaque paper, you have to have command of all of your values because there is no erasing once a wrong stroke is made. In a closer look, the skin textures tell me Jack was probably using the back side of a Bienfang Admaster pad, but it could just as easily have been demonstrated on loose leaf paper. It would make little difference to him, I suspect.

I mentioned to Ken that the real beauty of this comp, besides the clean use of graphic shapes within the layout, was the nonchalance of the paper and the medium. It defines Jack so well. That is, to him, it was no big deal. ( He's probably snickering his ass off at my attempt to describe the simplistic beauty of this comp! Notice the very distinctive way he renders seagulls. It always was a giveaway to Jack's illustrations... that is if you needed one! )

He always tried to keep it simple. It was like he was saying it's not the tools you use as much as it is the person using them. No art pencil is gonna make you a better artist than a good, old yellow No.2 . Jack certainly knew what to do with that No. 2! His disdain for art pencils in favor of a simple Ticonderoga No. 2 was a classic and reminded me of my father's disdain for ball players blaming the errors made during a game on your glove. Jack and my father both came from the same stock and had much in common.

Maybe, for me, Jack was my California replacement for a father. Maybe it was that way for many of his students!

"Good Things Come In Small Packages"... Number Four!

Going Navy with 'Da Blues...

Well, try as I may, I cannot find the layout that this picture of Brian inspired. Years ago, I got a call to create visuals for eight spread ads for an art director, Tony Halstead, who was freelancing for McCann Erickson. The client was Hamilton Avnet and wouldn't you know it, I've found six of the eight color xeroxes of my work, but not the one of a kid making a model airplane. In the above photo composite I designed for Brian's college graduation diary, the background pic of him making a model is one I shot for the Hamilton Avnet comp. 

Anyway, my son had a great time building a series of naval aircraft complete with the early WWII tri-colored camouflage of dark sea blue, sky blue and white. By this time, he was fairly good at airbrushing this paint scheme though he never did get the concept of taping off the greenhouse canopies that were used at this time during the war. 

What I used to do as a kid in the early sixties, was to paint the greenhouse frames by hand carefully lining in between the pre-grooved frames on the clear plastic canopy with turpentine or Testor's Thinner and then immediately add a line of dark blue using capillary action to do the rest of the work. If I wasn't satisfied with the line I would carefully erase the line trying to not disturb the many other frames I had created. It was quite tedious, but then, I was a kid and had plenty of patience especially on a rainy day when I had nothing else to do and nowhere else to go. 

My first airbrush was a Paasche "V" I received as a graduation gift in college. Within months it had paid for itself painting airbrush illustrations for the oil trade industry, but I didn't incorporate the tool on any model building projects until I attempted to use it in Jack Leynnwood's illustration class. It was then that I learned to use clear cellophane tape to mask off the frames of the greenhouse canopy and then spray color on with the airbrush. It was a technique my son never acquired mainly because I didn't trust him with an X-acto knife... at any age!

His inspiration for the TBF Avenger, which was another Lindbergh reissue and built completely by Brian except the greenhouse canopy, was at an airshow at Burbank where he saw a tri-colored SBD Dauntless and a year or two later, the TBF, at the then, annual Confederate Air Force Show at Chino.

Copyright 2011/ Ben Bensen III

Snark missile...

I am not sure this is a Revell boxtop that Jack painted, but I have never seen this piece and I remember making this model when I was a kid in the early sixties! Maybe it was for the aerospace industry!

More about Jack Leynnwood...

 I was born in New Orleans the eldest son of six siblings. I came out the chute with a baseball glove in my hand though I was not as good as my father, who could have had a career if not for the war. I lived between two airfields, one civil and one military. It was a big influence on me. I learned to paint trying to make my model airplanes to look like they did on the boxtops. I went to high school on an athletic scholarship and met my wife to be there. As most kids of the sixties, I was in love with rock 'n roll and played guitar in a garage band for about 4 years. It was, and still is, my first love. I married my high school sweetheart in 1972, graduated from USL in advertising in "73 and starved in New Orleans as a freelance illustrator. 

Therese and I left home in 1974, to attend the Art Center College of Design, where I met one of heroes, Jack Leynnwood who made a name for himself painting model boxtops for Revell, Aurora and other model companies. Jack was a real renaissance man. He was a professional jazz musician, pilot, and WWII vet, fighting what he called "the Desert War"... in Arizona! He was a big influence on me and I took every class he taught. As a teacher, he demonstrated every day how to paint the things you needed to learn to paint in order to make a living in the crazy world of illustration. He was not against theory of art or the history of art and commercial art, and was willing to expound on those subjects, but in the cafeteria, at lunch or during breaks... not in class. Jack got me hooked up with an aerospace company for my first job out of Art Center. I worked there for three years while working on my freelance career. I left to concentrate on my freelance career as a storyboard illustrator, art director and designer. The four photos of Jack's art were given to me while I was employed at General Dynamics by a colleague who worked with Jack at Northrup! 

   In 2001, we decided to cash out of LA and move back to Louisiana. We now live in a small town north of New Orleans on a 5 acre ranch still serving the ad community not only in California, but nationwide. Please check my website and LinkedIn for further details on my client list. I worked on a variety of clients from entertainment and automotive, to consumer products and sports. You name it and I have probably done it! You can see my work at: graphicgumbo.com and the various links therein.

Thoughts about a friend and teacher...

    The main reason I stayed at Art Center...

Some former students from ACCD and I got into a discussion about teachers on Facebook when I mentioned how Jack helped get me a job at General Dynamics in Pomona one year out of school. There is so much to tell, I don't think there is enough room here to tell it. I own a Jack Leynnwood and though I never had the guts to ask him to sign it, you'd know immediately that it was his! Once, he conducted another class in between his daytime and evening class to correct one of my original paintings for an assignment. He asked me if I was interested in bringing back to class the model F6F I had built especially for the assignment and asked the ten or so students if they would like to return after his dinner break to see him "fix" my illustration. He said that if Ben doesn't mind me painting over the original as an added lesson, we can extend the class. 

As you might have guessed, everyone showed up one hour later to see Jack completely change my piece. When it was finished, ( it took all of about two hours, maybe less ) we all stood there agape! Jack profusely apologized for making so many adjustments. I can honestly say that for once in my life, I was totally speechless!  I had the painting framed as soon as I could afford to do so and the 12x12 painting hangs proudly in my living room wall. 

That is just one of many stories I can share with you about Jack. He was never afraid to expose his artistic flaws to anyone because he knew pulling out the paints and demonstrating was the best way to teach visual learners like us. More than likely, there weren't too many flaws to begin with. Jack was the best.

Copyright2014/Ben Bensen III